Hi all
Four and a half month update !!
I’m doing very well thank god,I would say I have resumed “normal life” for me.I’m trying to walk a little more and longer distances,I wouldn’t have been walking much prior to surgery because of pain so that’s something I’m trying to build up again not in the least because I need to lose some weight. I rarely have to take any painkillers and even if I have a busy or heavy day once I can get to bed and elevate and do a bit of icing it seems to be enough. Once or twice I had to resort to painkillers but usually only Advil+paracetamol. My knee still swells and my thigh gets swollen and tight but not particularly painful.I still get the occasional zingers but they usually only last a few mins at a time.
As I said before I haven’t a clue of numbers re Rom or extension but I have a far better functioning knee than I had before surgery.some days when it’s swollen I can’t bend as much but once the swelling goes down the bend come right back
I’d say one of the most obvious improvements for me is I no longer walk like a penguin
My gait has improved dramatically. I remember reading on here of a poster that used to exaggerate his knee bend just doing everyday tasks and I started doing that around the house and our yard and concentrating on the heel to toe andalthough I’m sure I looked hilarious it’s seems to have paid off because I have what feels like a lovely straight walk.
As I have said before I did NO formal pt at all. I done gentle stretching and flexing exercises,heel pumps and (very) short walks. I was recently at a physio for work on my ankle and Achilles (on my operated leg) and I was telling her this and that I had taken time to heal my knee first and then use it and she was shocked. She said to me oh you were very lucky to get back all the function without exercising. I didn’t agree about being lucky but I let the hare sit. I think my decision at the start not to go this particular physio was correct as I feel she would have not understood the bonesmart way. And she is a wonderful physio and would often say that if it hurts don’t do it but I still think she would have struggled to appreciate my “lazy” way of recovery. However all I can say is that it has worked for me.
looking back over the last 4 and a half months I realise I had not a clue of the journey I was about to embark on,I think it happens a lot of people on here,your worn down from pain and your decreasing ability and even though I know my surgeon read out a page of side effects of surgery and general recovery guideline my pain brain just heard two words (which I don’t think were even said
)Pain Free !!!!! …….that’s all I was thinking. And the irony of it is after TKR the pain is immense, in the days and weeks after you realise what you thought was pain and discomfort was actually a walk in the park !!!HOWEVER ………roll on time and slowly slowly things improve and every little milestone is to be celebrated and it feels like suddenly (even though it’s anything but) you don't have pain 24/7,you don’t have to brace yourself mentally for things and you do activities once again without having to be prepared medicinally and mentally !!!
while I’m aware that my recovery journey is far from over I’m enjoying the fact that my recovery journey is going well.
And looming over the horizon is the second knee which in my head has become 2022s problem.!!!
hope everybody’s recovery is going well
Catherine.
United States
